In various industries substrates are often required to be supported on substrate supports prior to processing operations being performed on the substrates. Examples of such industries are the printing industry, the semi-conductor manufacturing industry, and other sheet material manufacturing industries.
In the printing industry substrates are generally secured to a substrate support prior to printing being performed on the substrate. In industrial printing systems, substrates are often secured to a substrate support using a vacuum-based substrate support which has an arrangement of vacuum orifices in fluid communication with a vacuum pump.
Vacuum-based substrate supports are generally designed according to the characteristics of the substrates with which they are intended to be. For example, a substrate support intended to secure lightweight flexible substrates may have a small number of vacuum orifices distributed across the substrate support, whereas a substrate support intended to secure a heavier-weight rigid substrate may have a larger number of larger vacuum orifices distributed across the substrate support. The size of vacuum orifices may also be chosen based on the types of substrates intended to be used with the substrate support.
Where a mix of different substrates are to be secured, a general purpose substrate support may be designed that offers a compromise between the differing requirements. However, such designs often have shortcomings.
Furthermore, using substrates smaller than a substrate support creates problems in that when vacuum orifices are not covered by a substrate this results in a general loss of vacuum pressure, may lead to an increase in noise, and may have other undesirable consequences.